TheJakartaPost
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The current capital punishment system is completely unfair
There is no evidence that the death penalty deters drug-related crimes more than other methods of punishment or that it affects crime reduction, the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights has found.
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Death penalty and executions in 2022. ( Amnesty International/ JP/Ina Parlina/Hengky Wijaya)
W
ill the conversation that Singaporean Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam had at the city-state’s Asian Civilizations Museum on Sept. 20 be remembered as a turning point toward a more just, fair and compassionate country?
The focus of the dialogue was drugs and capital punishment. At the end of the day, however, there was no “conversion” nor change of mind and heart on the side of Shanmugam.
He upheld with the usual conviction, backed up by some evidence that many activists and experts consider biased, the position that capital punishment for drug-related cases is the best option for Singapore.
Yet what seems to be praiseworthy is the fact that the Singaporean government finally started having a real discussion about this thorny issue and that local young people are starting to push back against the official narrative put forward by it.
No matter the ruling People Action Party’s (AP) narrative and its strong convictions on drugs and capital punishment, there are clear, straightforward, unassailable principles and standards.
Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, could not be clearer and louder in reaffirming this human rights cornerstone.
Before the 66th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March of this year, he said, “In 35 countries, the death penalty is prescribed for drug-related offenses. Yet, international human rights law restricts the use of capital punishment to the most serious crimes, understood as involving ‘intentional killing’. I reiterate my call on states that maintain the death penalty to abolish it, including for drug-related offenses.”
